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Lenses

Hands On: Carl Zeiss 35mm F/1.4 for Canon (Still and Video Samples)

Chris Gampat
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10/29/2010
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat the phoblographer photo plus expo 2010 (10 of 59)

Last Updated on 07/30/2011 by Chris Gampat

Cinematographers—want some of amazing looking bokeh for your Canon DSLR? Well, I was able to get a quick test with the Zeiss 35mm F/1.4 for Canon mount at Photo Plus Expo 2010. Overall, I really was very impressed with the lens and actually was feeling very envious. Even though I’ve got a Canon 35mm F/1.4 L, the new Zeiss lens just felt leaps and bounds better.

Technical specifications

Focal length                                    35 mm

Aperture range                                     f/1.4 – f/16

Number of elements/groups             11/9

Focusing area                                    0.3 m – infinity

Angular field** (diag./horiz./vert.) 63/54/37 °

Coverage at close range             18 x 12 cm (close-up)

Image ratio at close range            1:5 (close-up)

Filter thread                                    M 72 x 0.75

Weight                                                830 – 850 g

Length with caps                        120 – 122 mm

Diameter                                    78 mm

Mounts                                                 ZF.2 (F bayonet)

ZE (EF bayonet)

Ergonomics

The Zeiss 35mm F/1.4 is an almost all metal lens that feels just like one of those wonderful older lenses from the classic days of film. Granted, there seems to be modern updates like the focusing meter and the electronic contacts but it feels worth every penny that it costs.

Perhaps the only things I found to be a bit quirky with the lens are just how large the focusing ring is and the the ring with markings below that. This ring has textured/lined grooves on it that makes it feel synonymous to an aperture ring. Since this is a Canon mount lens, it doesn’t have an aperture ring.

The focusing ring is enormous though; making it great for users with different sized hands. Only part of it has the grooves ridges and the upper part of it is actually very smooth. Why Zeiss designed the lens like this is beyond me, but it does indeed seem to work very well. Then I began to think about it: this will help cinematographers and indie filmmakers with follow-focus tremendously!

One more really cool thing: it focuses just a bit closer than the Canon version does. Granted, it’s all manual focusing.

As I’ve heard with all Zeiss lenses, focusing manually can actually be a bit hard unless you get the right focusing screen.

Image Samples

The Zeiss 35mm F/1.4 is available for order at B&H.

Video Sample with Canon 5D Mk II

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35mm f1.4 canon carl zeiss lens photo plus expo 2010 review zeiss
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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